Revelation
by Believer1
Summary: Four years after Episode II, Anakin and Padme are about to be taken down a whole new path...parenthood. (Parts 4b, 5, and 6 are up!)
1. Part I PG13

Disclaimer: All the characters here belong to the Great Flannelled One. I just borrowed them for a spell. 

Author's note: Part One has two paragraphs which may be offensive to younger readers. I chose to put a low rating on this story because I felt it was not offensive enough to garner an NC-17. (All parts after Part One are PG.) Hint: avoid the italicized section if you don't want to read it. 

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Anakin Skywalker silently walked through the halls and passageways of the Naboo consulate, avoiding the guards with a practiced ease. This, for him, was the easiest part of his journey. Getting out of the Jedi Temple was harder, especially under Obi-Wan's ever more careful gaze.

But for his wife, he would risk even his master's rage and the expulsion from the Order being here promised. He had risked it time and time again over the course of their marriage, and he would risk it again this one last time.

He was changing. The galaxy was changing. The Jedi Order, the Republic, just as he'd predicted, were faltering and dying. The Republic, as far as he was concerned, was dead. Perhaps it was better that way for a universe scarred by the effects of a disastrous Clone War that had ruined its economy, slain billions, and destroyed the trusts the people had once held in their Senate. The Chancellor himself was the only one who escaped blame. _He was the first to get passage of bills to aid war-torn planets rebuild. He was the one who had proposed legislature to get refugees jobs, boost the economy. _

And the Jedi? Nearly decimated by their losses in the Clone Wars, they, too, were struggling to rebuild, often with the suspicion and fear of the common people. They blamed the Jedi for the Army's creation and not doing anything to stop the War from happening.

Anakin's blood surged hot with anger when he heard such things. Though he privately no longer felt any regard for the Order or the Council, they _were Jedi. They had powers beyond what any pitiable 'normal' person could ever have. The Jedi weren't to be held with contempt. They should be regarded with, at the very least, respect for that._

The present Council, of course, excluded. Palpatine was right. Yoda and the rest were blind fools, weakening to the power the Dark Side was gaining. It was sapping away their strength and yet they refused to admit it. They refused to seek new ways but stubbornly resisted change. 

They had labeled him rebellious and dangerous even from his first day among them, and if they ever found out about his marriage, they would throw him out of the Order immediately. 

He snorted. _Yeah, sure they would. He wouldn't still take this risk quite so boldly if not for the fact that he knew they couldn't afford to. As much as they were censorious, they needed him._

For his power was growing as the years went by. 

*

Padmé Amidala Skywalker paced restlessly in her chambers. Anakin had managed to send word that he would be coming to her tonight, but he had not yet arrived. She was worried. She always worried when he snuck away from the Temple to visit her, because of the danger that his midnight visits presented his standing in the Order, but it seemed she couldn't resist his kisses, his whispered words as they came together in passion that heated her blood far more than she ever wanted to admit.

She was worried about a lot more tonight. Yes, the galaxy's crises and the increasing power Palpatine had her spending many nights pacing restlessly, but this was different. 

She was concerned about Anakin. From what she'd been able to glean from Obi Wan, his stubborn former student – for Anakin had, at last, been granted Knighthood two years after the Battle of Geonosis – was becoming more and more impossible. His behavior towards her was changing, too. He was even more arrogant than ever, and the boy that had entranced her so boldly at nineteen was, four years later, still as entrancing. But the darkness that had frightened her that day in the garage, that had made her fear for his safety, was starting to make her fear for _hers._

She loved him so very deeply, and yet his love frightened her so very much. And she didn't know how he would take her news. 

Abruptly, she didn't have more time to think it over. There was a slight breeze as the door quickly opened and shut, and she turned to face her husband. The smile on his face showed how much he had missed her, and she found her heart began to race. She had missed him, too. This last separation had been far too long. He came forward to her, and she fell into his arms, accepting his kiss eagerly. 

"Oh, Anakin…"

"Padmé," he murmured. They were already undressing, need and desire unable to wait any longer. "My angel, how I've missed you…"

In the darkness of this room, he could feel his heart grow unburdened as she kissed him. It was amazing that even though the long years had passed since their first kiss, each one took him back. He felt unsteady and his overblown confidence deflated. There was no need to shield himself, no need to be anything but himself as he was at his core, and he was vulnerable to her in ways that no one else saw him vulnerable.

It made him wonder, sometimes, at the depths he would go to for this woman, that she could so utterly strip him of his defenses and yet leave him out of his mind with passion for her. 

He felt that need that controlled him burning higher and higher, and roughly, pressed her body to his, claiming her wet lips in his possessively and hungrily, begging and demanding at the same time. The feeling of cool hands undoing her clothes, ripping at the delicate silk of her dress when it would not come off easily, had her gasping for air. She was not surprised at this urgency; she felt it too. 

_Padmé was only too willing to let Anakin hold him to her, molding her shape against his, his kiss the dance of tongue to tongue and lips encompassing one another's. He was seducing her with every touch, every second of this kiss, and she wanted it, wanted him so desperately. She gave him everything she could in their kiss, feeling the spark of passion growing within her at his inflamed response. They moved to the bed, and he ran his hand down the length of her body, asking her to demand this of him, show him how much she needed him. And she did, her body arched beneath him as the fiery force of his tongue made her moan her pleasure. _

_He knew she desired him, and knew that he could not remain in control long enough to seduce her more. He nearly cried out with relief when he entered her, for she was blissfully wet and wanting him, arching up as he lost his mind, as her lips met his hotly. He was urgent, still almost fully clothed as he drove himself into her, his hands caressing as their mouths met in a series of passionate kisses. She took him deeper, not caring about anything but that moment. She demanded his release wordlessly and with incoherent cries that he primitively responded to. Their eyes were locked tensely as his uncontrolled thrusting bruised their flesh, and still she wanted more. He cried out, groaning, freezing as his pleasure came upon him and she held him deep inside, responding with her own fierce joy. _

She needed his intensity, needed it to be demanding and desperate, needed his loss of control. 

She needed it to prove to herself just how much he wanted her.

When at last their passions were ended, Padmé realized Anakin was still inside her, gulping in breaths of air at her ear, his hand and hers entwined as they lay together. When he finally was able to pull back, he looked into her eyes, saw how they were melted from their normal chocolate color, a satisfaction in them she didn't even try to hide. She saw tenderness she hadn't seen in a long time in his. He kissed her softly and then sank back on the bed, pulling her to face him as at last they were able to relax.

This was the way it went between them. Words about the things that had happened, a few laughs, maybe even tears. But now, there was always a passionate lovemaking that left Padmé breathless. It was as if Anakin just didn't know how to relax anymore, as if he feared that all the changes in their "day lives," as they had termed Senator and Jedi duties, would affect the time they had together so much so that they could not afford leisure. She knew that each second was an affirmation of love, and relished his zeal for that fact alone. But she wanted, in part, to go back to the way it had been, when he had taken each second slow, loving the feel of her body. He had made every second of their nights together last, for the memories of each night would have to sustain them both for days, weeks, and even months at a time.

Anakin watched Padmé drifting off, lost in her thoughts, and reached out to touch her face, brushing away loose tendrils of hair – really an excuse to touch the softness of her hair. He loved touching her, even in the smallest ways. He delighted in every detail of her body, and over the years had come to memorize each. They were the way he kept her memory burning in his heart on those long trips. Careful to shelter the thoughts from Obi Wan, he would take them out in his mind at night and go over each like a long-treasured item, remembering when each impression of her was taken. It helped pass the lonely nights, soothed away his frustrations. He missed her so much, yet he was so often at a loss for the right words to say when they were alone. 

"Anakin?"

Broken from his reverie, he met her eyes to discover they'd gone serious. She'd sat up, drawing the sheets around her protectively. She looked so small, so fragile, that his first impression of her as an angel was reaffirmed. 

"What is it, angel?" he asked, sitting up as well. She looked too serious…it made something like a tendril of fear curl into his stomach, a tendril which he quickly quashed. 

"I've got something to tell you, something that I don't think you'll like." She twisted her hands nervously and then forced herself to stop as he drew her closer, kissing her on the shoulder. 

"I'm sure whatever it is won't upset me as much as you seem to think it will, Padmé. What's troubling you?"

She looked up into his eyes. Deep blue eyes, the first thing that had caught her when she had met him all those years ago. Full of intelligence, and a wisdom beyond his years. The nine-year-old had impressed upon her things she had not known until she was well into her years as a Senator. His eyes remained knowing, but now they had grown more secretive, more able to hide the emotions that flickered across them. Emotion had always been Anakin's first reaction, even as that little boy, and his emotion now, reflected in his eyes, was concern and love.

She felt emboldened by it enough to just come out with it. He had always been up front with her about everything. She, too, should be about this now.

"I'm pregnant."

For a moment, his shock kept him dumb. Then, he burst out with, "What do you mean you're pregnant?"

"I mean, I'm pregnant." She searched his eyes, hoping for some kind of response, but he just sat there, unmoving. "For goodness's sake, Anakin, say _something."_

"What would you like me to say, Padmé? Congratulations?" he snapped. "Wow, I'm finally going to be a father?"

Her eyes filled with pain, and she got up, walking to the window. He sighed, regaining his hold on his temper, and got up, enfolding her in his arms. "This isn't easy for me either, Anakin," she said, her voice bordering on tears. "Having this baby will have an impact on my career, too."

"I know, I know," he soothed, running his hands down her arms in a comforting gesture. "I'm sorry, angel, I didn't think before I spoke. This is going to be too hard for either of us to hide. That's why I think it's time I approached the Council and told them the truth."

She pressed back against him. "You know they won't take this well."

"I know, but we can't keep on pretending." He turned her back to him. "Maybe this is a good thing, coming out with the truth. It takes a burden off of both our shoulders. I can finally be honest with Obi Wan."

"How do you think he'll feel about us?" She knew he regarded his former Master as a father figure and close confidant; she also knew Obi Wan was a stickler for the rules.

"I don't know," he admitted with a heavy heart. "But Padmé, I no longer have time to try to put it nicely. With this baby, a lot of things have to change for us. I want to be there with you, and I don't want to hide what we shared. I want this baby to have my name, to know me. I love you, and I love him or her. That's the truth."

She managed a small smile and hugged him. "Anakin, I want to go with you tomorrow. I…I need to."

"Are you sure? This isn't going to be pretty," he warned her. 

"I know, but I want to stand by you. You've always stood by me, and whenever I needed you, you were there. Tomorrow, you're going to need someone in your corner."


	2. Part II PG

The next day, Anakin stormed back into Padmé's chambers, closely followed on his heel by Padmé herself, who waved away Dormé and the other servants and guards. "Who do they think they are?" he fumed. "Telling me what to do as if I was a child! They can't control me as if I have no mind of my own, no heart to guide me! Condescending to me as if my own wife wasn't standing in the room when they told me it was her or their damned Order! Well damn them! I'm leaving the Order! I don't need them!"

"Anakin, please, calm down," she said, trying to soothe him.

He whirled to face her, anger written in his eyes. "How can you tell me to calm down, Padmé? After what we just had to listen to?"

She could only gaze at him helplessly. "I wish," she said slowly, "that I knew what to tell you, Anakin. I wish that I had some magical way of fixing this. But I don't." She looked away. "Perhaps it would've been better if I'd never told you I love you all those years ago."

He took her by the shoulders. "Don't say that, Padmé, angel." His eyes bored into hers, softened from the anger that had darkened them to pitch black. They were full of a pleading eloquence that she believe in him, for no one else did at that moment. "Don't ever tell me that. Every day I live and fight is for you. Without you there is nothing."

"But being with me has caused all this trouble for you," she whispered. 

"I don't care about it. Forget it. It doesn't matter."

She broke away from him. "Don't lie to me, Anakin! It does matter! Being a Jedi is one of the most important things in your life!"

"That's right, _one of the most important things. __You're the most important thing in my life, Padmé, you and our child. That's why it doesn't matter. As long as I have you, I don't care if they decide to remove me from the Order. Do you understand me? I don't care." He emphasized each last word, holding her face in his hands, speaking with a quiet intensity that made her fall in love with him all over again. This man was true passion. It was intense and fevered or it was nothing to him. _

"What will you do if they remove you?" she asked softly. "Where will you go, what will become of you? Your whole life has been dedicated to this one purpose, Anakin. To be removed from it would be to be lost."

"Not lost," he said, shaking his head. But before they could continue the discussion, Dormé walked back in, her manner slightly more tentative than usual.

"Master Kenobi to see you, milady, Jedi Skywalker." 

Anakin grimaced and turned away, releasing his wife as she nodded in acquiescence to Dormé's words. "Send him in, then."

As Obi-Wan walked into the room, she took a deep breath, steeling herself to remain calm despite however heated it might get. 

Obi-Wan said nothing for a moment, merely stood, as if trying to collect his thoughts. Anakin stood with his back turned to him, his hands clasped tightly behind his back. Padmé rose from her seat, uncertain for a moment before clearing her throat and greeting the Jedi Master she knew so well. 

Obi-Wan responded politely, as was his nature, but more coldly than usual. His eyes did not look into hers but rather at the floor even as he clasped her hand. His were cold, and she gauged from his appearance that he had either been fighting with the Council or had landed in the midst of a Senate meeting, for his eyes were weary and his face haggard. With some surprise, she noted gray hair had begun to come in at his temples, and realized for the first time how old he had gotten in the past four years, though he was still only middle-aged. Suddenly his eyes rose to meet hers; he noticed her concern, and offered a small smile. She smiled back, and he saw, not for the first time, how beautiful Padmé really was. Their hands parted, and before he could address Anakin, his eyes going serious as they flickered to the twenty-three-year-old's stern figure, Anakin turned to face him, and his face was set, his eyes as hard as they had been when he had faced the Council. "So, have you come to offer me patronizing advice as well?"

"No, Anakin," Obi-Wan said quietly. "I have not."

"Or perhaps more direct orders from the Council? Thinly veiled jibes at the validity of my marriage?" Anakin persisted sarcastically. 

Padmé's eyes met his pleadingly and yet he refused to stop, crossing his arms over his chest, waiting for Obi-Wan's response.

"I did not come with any of those intentions. Your decision to marry Padmé was your own, Anakin, and I cannot criticize it."

"How kind," his former Padawan said dryly. 

"I came merely to tell you that I am sorry for the scene that took place this afternoon. That I apologize for not supporting you more directly."

"For _not supporting me more directly? You certainly have a way of twisting words to your advantage, Obi-Wan. Try not supporting me __at all. You stood there in front of all those fools and said not one word to protest the way they were treating me – or even my wife. If you have any complaints about either of us, it would not be about Padmé! She's never done anything wrong to you."_

Stung, Obi-Wan's eyes narrowed, but he did nothing under this verbal assault, letting Anakin rave on. "I admit that I've not always been the most faithful learner, or the most eager to pay attention to lessons. But that was never a reason for you to behave like that. You were always cold, though, weren't you? You always looked out for yourself. When someone didn't do what you wanted, they were censured immediately. You're just like them. You don't understand, and you never will because you refuse to open your eyes and see."

"And what exactly do I refuse to see?" Obi-Wan answered, his tone ice.

"The Jedi Order is dying," Anakin said promptly. "And leading them down that path to hell is that council of idiots."

Now it was Obi-Wan's turn to fold his arms over his chest. "I see. And who would you suggest to save the Order?"

"There will be nothing to save it, if they insist on following the Republic. Don't you see how trying to coexist with the Republic has gotten us nowhere?"

Obi-Wan spluttered, "_Nowhere? How can you say that? For over a thousand generations – "_

Anakin waved a hand dismissively. "Yes, yes, yes, don't start on that diatribe -- I'm sorry, that didn't come out right." He sighed, and suddenly, he lost all the macho posturing, the over-inflated ego, and sat heavily down, burying his head in his hands. "I'm sorry, Obi-Wan, I'm so angry and upset right now I don't know what I'm saying." He shot his former master an apologetic look, one filled with all his lost innocence. "Forgive me, please. I've insulted you without meaning to. I just..." He trailed off. 

Obi-Wan sat down across from him and looked at him seriously. He wanted to forgive, wanted to forget the fire behind his student's words, and so tried to understand the point of view behind hot words. Anakin's temper, renowned at the Temple, was notoriously quick, yet seldom branched into lasting hatred. Such was not the Jedi way. He reached out and touched the younger man on the shoulder. "I know." His gaze rose to find Padmé and saw the tension that strained her face as well. 

As a rule, Jedi didn't have much experience dealing with pregnant women. But he knew her well enough to know that she should be sitting down, too, that this situation was too much for her to handle right now. "Is there anything I can do for either of you?" he asked simply.

"Fast forward time and get us out of this mess?" Anakin queried with a wry smile. 

"I'm afraid that's a bit beyond my capabilities," Obi-Wan quipped. "Perhaps, though, a vacation would be in order. Maybe you and Padmé should retreat to Naboo for a while? I could try to reason with the Council."

Before Anakin could consider it, Padmé shook her head. "I can't leave Coruscant now. I've got too many problems to deal with in the Senate." She glanced at Anakin and he nodded slowly. "She's right, Obi-Wan. She can't afford to leave, and I don't think the Council would look too fondly on my leaving the capital. I can't have them taking it as a step towards leaving the Order. I would, however, appreciate it if you'd try to talk to them. Yoda's never liked me and you know he practically rules the Council."

Obi-Wan stifled a smile at this assessment of the older Jedi's power in the Council. While it was true that Yoda had a great deal of influence, each Jedi on the Council was independent-minded. As for not liking, Anakin had probably taken that from Yoda's reluctance to see him trained, his fears that the young Skywalker would prove, indeed, dangerous and susceptible to the Dark Side. But Anakin's temper had always been volatile, uncontrolled though he tried desperately, though Obi-Wan had taken measures to see it controlled. Still, despite his brashness and temper, he had become a worthy candidate for the Trials, and Obi-Wan had not hesitated to submit his candidate's name when he'd felt Anakin was ready.

Over the years, Obi-Wan had wondered if his own decision wasn't too impetuous. But he'd considered, and found that there was nothing wrong with Anakin that time wouldn't improve. He had no doubt that now that he had a family to support and a child to raise, Anakin's temper and brashness would slow down. 

"I will do my best," Obi-Wan said, and then he rose. "Are you going to be staying here?"

"I don't know," Anakin said uncertainly. "Since we have not announced our marriage, it might be scandalous if word of it got out."

Padmé shared Obi-Wan's grimace of distaste for the gossip-hungry elite of Coruscant. "Well then, I'll see you tonight at the Temple."

Anakin nodded, and Obi-Wan retreated back to the Temple to do damage control. Blue eyes met chocolate, and he grinned lopsidedly. "Come here, angel."

She settled herself in his arms and sighed softly. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know. Whatever happens, though, won't matter to this baby." He put a hand over her stomach. "So, please, let's talk about something more pleasant. Like a name for my son?"

She laughed. "How do you know it's a boy and not a girl?"

He shrugged. "Lucky guess. Ok, so names for both sexes."

Padmé looked up at him and grinned mischievously. "How about Palo?" 

At the name of her former love (at all of twelve), Anakin wrinkled his nose. "How about _no?"_

"No's a good name for a boy," she said seriously, and then laughed. 

He rolled his eyes. "This is going to get us nowhere."

"How about Anakin?" Padmé retaliated.

"No. I'd never name my son after me."

"Why not?"

"Too much pressure."

"To becoming a psychotic like his father?"

He offered her raised eyebrow an ironic grin. "To becoming the 'greatest Jedi ever.' " His tone took up a bitter edge to it, and she placed her hand over his. "We'll figure this out, you know."

"I know," he replied softly. He kissed her on her forehead and then the two sank into debating names. 

*

As he entered the chambers of Chancellor Palpatine, Anakin paused to survey the wide room. The Chancellor's view of the city-planet was nothing but breathtaking to most visitors. To one born in the desert heat and sand of Tatooine, it was an awe-inspiring shot, but he much preferred the vistas of Naboo, each place there more beautiful than the last. From the majesty of the palace of Theed to the simplistic perfection of the waterfalls, the planet cried out to him of its natural splendor, and to compare it with the imposing buildings of Coruscant that arced into the sky for miles as far as the eye could see…well, there really was no comparison. Still, this view _was incomparable to anything but Naboo, certainly far better than his own humble upbringings._

The room spoke of wealth and power, and though the Jedi neither asked nor desired either, it was something to think about. How much wealth and power ensnared the minds of the politicians his master so despised. In that, student was like master. Yet this politician didn't bother him so much. Perhaps it was because Chancellor Palpatine was from his beloved's homeworld, or because he treated Anakin as an equal where so many others treated him as an inferior. Whatever the reason, Anakin was happy to finally tell the ruler of the Republic of his marriage, and unburden himself to someone who at least would be sympathetic to him.

When he told the Chancellor, he watched the older man's face carefully. None of the things he expected to see – surprise, disappointment, or even betrayal, as the Council members had expressed in the first moment before they got their emotions under control – popped up on his face or flickered in his eyes. Instead, he merely touched the fingertips of one hand to the other's in a contemplative expression. "I see," he said slowly. "So you have gone behind the Council's back. How do they feel about your marriage?"

Anakin shrugged. "They didn't take it that well."

There came a rumble of laughter. "Are you deliberately understating, Anakin?"

"Somewhat." Skywalker allowed himself a smile. "They were furious."

"Doubtless because they told you not to, and you went ahead and did it anyway," Palpatine said, amusement in his voice. "You have never taken their word for gold, and I applaud you for it. We should never kowtow to our elders. What does Obi-Wan think of it?"

"He wasn't that happy at first, but he's slowly coming around. He offered to go to the Council and try to smooth things out."

"Did you accept?"

"I had no choice. His word is more respected than mine."

"Because he more often obeys them," Palpatine guessed correctly. "Well, no matter. As long as you and your bride are happy, I dare say anything else can go to the spice mines of Kessel." He paused. "Though, if they do remove you from the Order, what will you do?"

"I don't know," the younger man confessed; he was hesitant, suddenly faced with a future without the Order that had tried to be a second mother – and had some success, although that success was not without tainting. 

"Then I want you to be the first to know, if you need a job, you have one with me," Palpatine said swiftly. "I have no patience with the mechanics of politics, you know that, but I know I could find you a job that would satisfy your needs."

Anakin nodded, and gave a grateful smile. "Thank you, sir. If it comes to my expulsion, I'll gladly accept your offer."

"Wonderful." Palpatine was more than pleased, and as Anakin left the room, he was left with nothing but good feelings towards the man once again. The Republic's sentiments towards him were not wrong. Palpatine cared about his subjects deeply, even ones that held themselves out of his authority. He was the greatest thing to happen to this Republic in a long time.

He could not have known what kind of job Palpatine had meant for him.


	3. Part III PG

Part III  
  
Obi Wan Kenobi stood in front of the Council once again, his arms folded respectfully, hidden in the swells of his robe. His blue eyes searched beyond the room to the skyline outside for some comfort, some renewal of strength as he dealt with the debating Jedi. The room was cool, ever to the point of being chilly, and his arms were not just respectfully hidden but hidden because he was nearly frozen. His jaw was set, and he listened with rapidly thinning patience to the arguments posted by such well-respected masters as Yaddle, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, Depa Billaba, Plo Koon, and Ki- Adi-Mundi.  
  
To his surprise, they were allowing him to overhear their protests and their suggestions, pros and cons. He found himself agreeing with some and scoffing at others, though he wasn't allowed to say anything at that particular moment. He only wished he could simply say what he had to say in Anakin's behalf and be removed from hearing all of it.  
  
Anakin had shaken him, disturbed him to his core, uprooted him from complacency, and kept him forever on his toes. The young man had also been like his son for many years. The lack of intimacy which had started their relationship was thankfully not continued in their relationship. He had developed a fondness for his young padawan, though by no means understanding his impulsiveness until he'd looked back to his own training. There were all the keys to understanding and training Anakin Skywalker. Their pasts might've been different, but the overlying trait was that they had both been impatient, persistent to the point of stubbornness, and brash. Anakin had all the traits lying there to make him a steady person and a highly respected Jedi later on in life. But his former padawan was still young, still impetuous. He needed time to mature.  
  
Of course, using such an argument had dangerous implications. A Jedi was supposed to be mature by the time they were to take the Trials. A Jedi Anakin would not be, unless he controlled his brashness and his impetuosity.  
  
But he was a Jedi. The people to approve a Jedi's time for the Trials were none other than the Council themselves, and they too had agreed with Obi Wan's assessment then. They had to see that Padmé had had a great deal to do with Anakin toning down, with the marked improvement in temper and impulse that his former master and many other Jedi had remarked upon. Anakin was maturing.  
  
It was Padmé who helped him. If she had not been there, the young Skywalker would be far worse than he was today.  
  
This, Obi Wan had seen upon further reflection. It had become obvious to him when he asked himself the question, and because of this observation, he had gone to the Naboo consulate to offer his aid to Anakin.  
  
Frankly, the mess that he was standing in the middle of in the Council chambers was almost proof enough that the hotheaded Jedi Knight was right. The Council was increasingly bogged down in debates over things that seemed so clear to the individual.  
  
But then again, the individual was not important.  
  
He sighed, and came up short as he realized the Council members were looking at him, their argument stopped for the moment.  
  
"Bore you, do we, Jedi Kenobi?" Yoda asked somewhat sharply.  
  
"No, Master Yoda," Obi Wan said with a slight bow.  
  
"Yet impatient you are to speak what you will. Pointless, you view this as," Yoda reprimanded. "In favor, you are, of letting this match continue."  
  
"Masters, I don't think that you will be able to stop Anakin from staying married to Senator Amidala," Obi Wan replied with a respectful tone. "That is why I view this debate as pointless." He took a deep breath. "Senator Amidala is with child," he added, suddenly subdued.  
  
Every Jedi in that room took a deep breath in as they tried to digest Obi Wan's news. Mace Windu sat pensive, thinking this over. A child of the Chosen One. If Anakin gave in to the Dark Side, that child could prove his redemption, or the galaxy's salvation.  
  
Or its utter ruination if it fell as well.  
  
"We understand that Jedi Skywalker and the Senator do not wish to part," Adi Gallia said gently. "Such feelings are natural for a couple in love. What we are concerned with, Jedi Kenobi, is the effect this marriage will have on him, not to mention the upcoming birth of his child. 'A Jedi knows no passion, nor hatred, nor love.' It is written in the Jedi Code for good reason." She turned to the others. "Jedi Skywalker has disobeyed the Code, yet I do not feel it wise for him to be let go from the Order. Nor do I feel he should be reprimanded."  
  
"And why not?" Mace asked.  
  
"Because," Adi reminded him, "Jedi Skywalker is young, Master Windu. And he has not yet learned dispassion. Yet, these past years have wrought a remarkable change in him. Before the Battle of Geonosis, Jedi Skywalker was impatient and - "  
  
"And still remains so," Ki-Adi-Mundi pointed out.  
  
"Yes, but his passions have been greatly tempered. I do not think it has just been age that has done this." Adi paused and glanced at Obi Wan. "I believe, with Jedi Kenobi, that Jedi Skywalker's emotions have been tempered by the presence of Senator Amidala."  
  
At last, someone understands my viewpoint, Obi Wan thought. He added, "Master Gallia is correct. Senator Amidala has had a great influence on Anakin. I believe this change is for the better."  
  
"And if wrong you are, upon your shoulders rests the blame for allowing it?" Yoda asked. "No, Jedi Kenobi. Broken the Code young Skywalker has." He gave a troubled glance at the floor before meeting Obi Wan's eyes. "But the first to do so, he is not. Right you are when say, you do, that Skywalker would continue his marriage."  
  
"And what of his child?" Mace Windu questioned gravely. "The son or daughter of the Chosen One."  
  
He did not finish the trail of his thoughts, though it was palpable to all those in the room.  
  
Obi Wan shifted, and ventured, "If the child is strong in the Force, I have no doubt that Senator Amidala and Anakin will want him or her placed in the Temple for training."  
  
"Yet, I fear that the Temple will not exist by then," came a wearied voice. Saesee Tiin had seen much of the fighting and as a result, had lost much hope in the turn of the Wars. His ability to see much of what lay ahead had proved invaluable to the Council, but even he had lost much of his sight, and what little he could see was a portent of doom. "I think that the Wars will disrupt all of our lives, and you yourself may end up training the child, Jedi Kenobi."  
  
Obi Wan felt a chill run up his back, for implied in the wise Master's words was not only the destruction of the Jedi but Anakin's future gone dark.  
  
"The Dark Side," Yoda said, breaking the spell of silence that had fallen. "In those words, it lies. Fear, anger, hatred.of the Dark Side they are. Dwell on that possibility you must not."  
  
Master Tiin was silent, and Obi Wan saw grave uncertainty in the Iktotchi's eyes as he reached out for the Light Side's reassuring strength.  
  
"But if such a possibility lies ahead," Obi Wan pressed hesitantly, "then do you think this child should become a Jedi?"  
  
Mace turned his eyes to him. "Not train the son or daughter of Skywalker? That would be handing down a fate of doom in any case, Jedi Kenobi." His voice seemed to fill with weariness as well. "Obi Wan, you must trust in your apprentice. Your teachings, the presence of Senator Amidala, they must not fail him."  
  
And then Adi Gallia spoke one last time. "But most of all, you must remember that the paths ahead are of his own choosing. Whether this birth is a catastrophic portent for the Jedi and the Republic or a joyous herald that the Dark Side will be vanquished, we will not know until the child is born. Until then, keep a close eye on both of them. It's about all we can do."  
  
"Yes, Master," Obi Wan replied, and with a bow, left the Council to their wonderings. He took in a breath as he entered the halls of the Temple, feeling the air more warm here. Or was it that only his sense of danger ahead was keeping him chilled in the Council chambers?  
  
He had, as they say, a very bad feeling about this.  
  
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Sorry that chapter was so short, but I want to keep the birth for last. *wicked grin* Anyway, look forward to the next chapter, coming soon, I promise!  
  
Thanks to everyone who responded, and don't worry, the gods have a lot in store for Padmé, Anakin, and Obi Wan. (And to everyone who notices the last line and groans, my apologies. You know I had to go there.) 


	4. Part IV A PG

Nine months later  
  
"Push, Lady Padmé!"  
  
"I can't," Padmé gasped out in response to her handmaiden's urgent declaration. Dormé glanced at the Jedi healer and then at Obi Wan Kenobi as he sat with a look of concentration on the other side of Lady Padmé. "Master Kenobi, please, do something!" she exclaimed, her voice filling with more panic than she had thought she would show.  
  
"Calm down, Dormé," Obi Wan said soothingly. He reached into the Force and saw Padmé's problem: the twins - and yes, they were twins - were all tangled up in one another. The boy kept trying to come out feet first, while the girl wanted to come out headfirst. He glanced over at the Jedi healer, who was doing the best he could to separate the panicking twins.  
  
Obi Wan met Padmé's eyes as he came out of it, and she glanced into his with apprehension. "What is it, Obi Wan?" she asked, her voice tense. "I can feel something is wrong. Tell me, please."  
  
"They're tangled up with one another," Obi Wan told her quietly. "Just relax, Padmé, the healer's doing the best she can to help the twins. The only thing you can do is be calm, and not panic."  
  
The wife of his former student absorbed this thought silently, and focused all her energies inward. She couldn't reach out to the Force, of course, like Obi Wan, but the way she reached out to them was through the bond of a mother to her children.  
  
She had never before had an experience with the Force quite like this one as the girl twin reached out and touched her mind. She gasped aloud and tried not to panic the baby even more than it was already panicking, and immediately responded with soothing thoughts, though she didn't know if the baby could hear them. She reached deeper and felt Obi Wan's reassuring calm join hers to help guide her reach out to both twins, steadying them so the healer could do her work.  
  
At last, over two hours later, the difficult nine month pregnancy and twenty-two and a half standard hours of labor were over for Padmé Naberrie Amidala Skywalker, and she sank back onto the pillows with relief as the wail of two crying infants filled the air. The healer cleaned each child and handed them to Padmé before standing and stretching her tired bones. She retreated from the room, leaving the new mother to deal with her children for the first time.  
  
Padmé held Leia first, then Luke. Her arms were too tired to try to manage both at first. Luke slept contentedly, but Leia blinked sleepy brown eyes and yawned before she, too, succumbed to slumber in his mother's arms.  
  
Their mother glanced up and saw Luke in the arms of a very uncomfortable looking Obi Wan, who had never before held a child, and stifled a smile as the boy tried to burrow deeper into his robes. Obi Wan caught her gaze and laughed quietly before looking down at Luke.  
  
He knew without Luke having to open his eyes that he had inherited Anakin's blue, as Leia had Padmé's brown. Yet Luke, who was born second, had Padmé's more rounded features, and Leia her father's sharper set of nose and even his ears (or so Padmé had told him).  
  
His smile faded as he thought of the uncertain future in store for the twin children of Anakin Skywalker and his beloved Senator.  
  
Nine months had changed the galaxy more than had been imagined in Saesee Tiin's dark predictions. The Clone Wars, which had lasted so long and had been so bloody, had left a galaxy weary of blood and death teetering on the edge of chaos, an edge which Supreme Chancellor Palpatine had plunged them over. He had used his speaking skills to do something which not even the Jedi had guessed:  
  
Stir the galaxy up in arms against the Jedi.  
  
Instead of fighting side-by-side with the clone troopers for peace and justice and the end to the Separatist threat, the Jedi were forced now to flee the approach of what Palpatine termed "the true keepers of peace and justice."  
  
It was blasphemy, and even more so, it was a betrayal of the trust and loyalty of the Jedi. The survivors had barely managed to get off Coruscant in time to escape angry mobs which turned Palpatine's words against them.  
  
Palpatine had betrayed the Jedi, and now, like moths fleeing before a flame, they had scattered all throughout the galaxy in hidden "cells," on the few remaining Loyalist worlds that would hold them, including this one, Alderaan.  
  
Bail Organa had taken many risks to allow the Jedi access to the secret passages and hidden chambers under the palace where he and his wife and sisters lived.  
  
If caught, Bail and his family would pay for it with their lives.  
  
It was only a small group here now, Sabé, the former Queen's loyal first decoy, had come out from her retirement on Naboo to serve as bodyguard and decoy, as well as Rabé; Dormé, who had been the Senator's bodyguard since her appointment, naturally came with them, and of course Obi Wan, who had been assigned to protect Padmé, as well as a Jedi healer and Captain Typho, who had served as Amidala's security advisor during the length of her Senatorial run, as well as after.  
  
Chancellor Palpatine had not dared go after them. Not when Anakin still remained missing.  
  
As the thought flickered through Obi Wan's mind, he felt young Luke shift uncomfortably. He pushed it away, wanting to protect the boy against the truth.  
  
Anakin had disappeared three months after the truth about his marriage and the child his wife bore came out. For a moment, Obi Wan wished the truth was more complex than it seemed, that Anakin simply hadn't disappeared while on a mission from the Council.  
  
But he had. And six months later, with the galaxy in chaos, his wife giving birth, Anakin was still missing. Obi Wan wondered and feared for where Anakin was, more than he ever would let Padmé know. If the dark words of the months earlier had come true, if Anakin had turned to the Dark Side.  
  
He looked down at Luke and thought, you might be the last of the Skywalkers, young Luke. And if that is the case, then may the Force help us all.  
  
This boy might be the last hope of a galaxy. His sister as well.  
  
The thought did not comfort him.  
  
_________________________________________________________  
  
Part II of the Birth chapter coming soon!  
  
Sorry it took so long to update. The dreaded writer's block attacks. 


	5. Part IV B PG

Two nights later, he walked the chambers and corridors under the palace silently, his senses stretched to the maximum. He dared not sleep, even though the few guards Typho had crawled through the corridors armed to the teeth and ready for anything. Obi-Wan could not quiet his mind enough for sleep, even if he hadn't had this sense of dread that something was going to go awry.

"Obi-Wan?"

He turned and faced the diminutive handmaiden Sabé, reflecting as he did so that she was so like Padmé that even their senses in the Force had become intermingled. "What is it?" he asked, sensing something was wrong in the dark look on her face.

"Padmé," Sabé told him softly. "Something's wrong with her."

"Have you sent for the healer?" Obi-Wan questioned, turning on his heel and beginning to walk with her back to Padmé's quarters.

She nodded. "She's with her now. But Padmé asked for you." 

Rounding a corner, Obi-Wan slipped through a pair of blast doors guarding the entrance to the Organas' 'safe-room,' where Padmé slept, giving a nod to the security officers, Typho included. He found Rabé and Dormé standing close to their lady, the Jedi healer bent over her anxiously. He took one look into Padmé's white face and knew the news wasn't good. 

He cursed to himself when the healer informed him quietly that she didn't have the proper tools to deal with the former Senator, who was bleeding heavily. 

Padmé's eyes flickered open, and she whispered his name. 

Gently, he pushed Rabé and Dormé aside, as well as the healer, and sat down by her side. "Padmé, I'm here." 

She reached a cold hand out for his, and he grasped it warmly. "Obi-Wan," she said, her tone quiet and somewhat shaky. She cleared her throat and he found himself handed a glass of water by the silent Dormé, whose eyes showed her concern. 

"Obi-Wan," Padmé said again, this time more strongly. "The children…"

"They're fine, Padmé," he said soothingly. 

"No." She made as if to sit up and he and Rabé braced her, Rabé then sinking into the shadows. She closed her eyes briefly and then centered on him. "You must take them away from here. Anakin…must not find them."

"You mean he's coming here? How could you know this, Padmé?" 

A ghost of a smile traced her lips. "Obi-Wan, I do not need to be a Jedi to feel when my husband is near." Then the smile faded. "He's changed, Obi-Wan. There is something different about him, something dark. He cannot find them here."

"Padmé," Obi-Wan began, but she cut him off. "Promise me, Obi-Wan. I'm dying." 

At the words, he wanted to protest, but something in her face, in the dark eyes he had always cherished for their inability to lie – something truly rare in a politician – made him quiet his protest. "Where would you have me take them?"

Her hand gripped his. "The only place I can think Leia would be safe is here, with Bail. But Luke…you said yourself he was strong in the Force. If he was placed on a Republic world, the Chancellor's Jedi hunters would find him."

Grimly, he nodded. He should know, he'd had quite a few narrow escapes himself. "I will find a safe place for him, Padmé, if this is what you wish."

"It is what I wish. Promise me you will do this."

"I give you my word," he told her, and watched as she sank back with relief into the cushions. Abruptly, another presence was felt in the room, and Obi-Wan turned to see Bail Organa walk in. "I came just as soon as I heard," he said, glancing from the Jedi to Padmé. "How are you, Padmé?"

Padmé managed that ghost of a smile for Bail, someone she had always considered an older brother. "Not well, Bail. And you?"

Bail's shoulders slumped, and Obi-Wan noticed for the first time how many lines were around the man's eyes, and how world-weary, haggard, the man looked. "My wife…Lianna is dead," he admitted, choking back a bitter sob. "Both her and the babe she carried."

"Oh, Bail," Padmé whispered, her face etched with her grief. "I had no idea…"

"No one knew," Bail told her. "The doctors weren't there, only an old servant, and her young daughter, Winter. The servant tried, but Lianna…" He turned his face away, and for a moment, no one said anything, overwhelmed not only by their private tragedy, but the death of their friend's beautiful young wife, who had welcomed them, knowing all the risks she was taking with her unborn child in the face of the Chancellor's wrath.

Finally, he cleared his throat and looked back at them, centering on Padmé. "Are you all right, Padmé? The children…are they well?"

"Yes." Padmé's face was fitting to the occasion. "Bail, I have a great favor to ask of you, one that I should not…if circumstances were different, I wouldn't dare ask more of you than I already have."

"Padmé, you have more than done enough to merit the aid of a grateful friend," he replied with a smile that had not lost its saddened edge. "What can I help you with?"

For the first time, she seemed uncertain, glancing at Obi-Wan before she continued. "My children are strong in the Force, Bail. So strong that I fear the Jedi hunters would have them before we had time to react, even with everyone's protection. I cannot risk their being captured. And therefore I cannot risk staying in one place for too long." She paused, and saw Bail trying to process this information. "My daughter, Leia," she said very softly now, "is the less Force-strong of the two. I would ask that you take her as your daughter, Bail. Raise her, train her in the political system if you wish. But keep the public away from ever viewing her as Anakin's daughter."

"Won't Anakin be upset about this?" Bail questioned. "Surely when he comes back…"

"I do not think Anakin is coming back," she said, startling them all by saying the one thing they'd refrained from saying in her presence. Her face betrayed her pain though her voice was strong. "Not now, not ever. Not as my husband."

"You fear him dead?" he asked gently. _Perhaps the strain of everything around her was finally taking too much of an effect on Padmé, he mused. _

"I fear worse," she replied. "Obi-Wan will take Luke someplace safe. In the meanwhile…" She very slowly started to rise from her bed, and Obi-Wan aided her for a moment before she shook off his arm. She managed the two or three feet to the crib and took Leia from beside her brother. When she turned to face them all again, there was something of the warrior queen in the way she held her body, though ravaged by the effects of hard labor. 

"Take Leia now," she said, handing her to Bail. "Take her before it's too late." 

Bail glanced down at the sleeping child with some confusion. But he didn't have time to object.

Captain Typho burst in. "Milady, clone troops have been spotted in Alderaanian space. It's an invasion fleet." 

Obi-Wan stood, ready to direct, sensing panic rise in all of them except Padmé, who had gone perfectly still.

"Anakin is here," she said; the way she said it chilled him. 

Sabé snatched Leia from Bail's arms. "The Viceroy and I will head back upstairs," she said, taking on Amidala's commanding tone. "I will hide Leia where I can and try to fool the troops."

"I'll go with you," Rabé offered. Dormé stepped up as well.

"No," Obi-Wan said quietly, his voice brooking no argument. "Sabé and Bail, go. Rabé and Dormé, I will need you to help me create a diversion." Sabé and Bail left, and the two handmaidens, along with Captain Typho and Padmé herself, huddled closer to discuss a plan of action. Finally all was ready. 

And then Padmé fainted. 

Down through corridors he knew like the back of his hand, Obi-Wan carried the unconscious former queen, praying that her lifelessness was a façade and would remain so. He burst up into a hangar, Dormé, who was shielding Luke, hot on his heels. Decoy ships were waiting for them, and the troops led by Captain Typho fanned all around them, the pilots sprinting for their ships. 

Suddenly, the air tension thickened as clone troopers burst into view everywhere around them. Dormé stayed close to him, who ignored flying blaster bolts and dodged bodies as he made his way to the central ship, covered by Typho and two of his best men. Rabé made her way to her own starship, and drew several troopers' attention as she did so. Strangely, none of them fired directly at the senator's decoy, but _around her, taking down many of her bodyguard team. The troops disregarded Obi-Wan for the most part, seeming not to notice the woman he carried (a mind trick he was thankful he'd learned)._

And then to his utter shock, they stopped firing. 

Obi-Wan was filled with a dread so strong it left a metallic taste in his mouth. He had not felt this way in a long time, not since he'd watched his master fight Darth Maul all those years ago, sensing something was going to go horribly wrong.

Anakin Skywalker strode into the midst of the troopers. 

But it was a very different Anakin who stood before his former master now. His whole aura projected contempt, dark hatred, and power…and yet…fear. 

Obi-Wan noticed some of the battle-hardened troops had shrunk back at the appearance of the young man, who met most of them in height and breadth, though it could not be told under that midnight black robe.

His heart sank and yet grim determination filled him. It could not end this way. Not for the sake of Padmé Amidala, not for the sake of the Jedi. 

Not for the sake of the galaxy. 

He prepared for a long fight, but all Anakin did was say to him very simply, "Give me my wife, Master Kenobi."

Obi-Wan gripped the senator's body tighter, sensing as he did so that Padmé was coming back to herself. Her eyes fluttered open, and she turned her head to gaze at Anakin. Something crossed from husband to wife, and she said softly, "Obi-Wan, let me go."

"Milady," he said, reverting to the formal.

"Let me go," she said, her tone commanding, and he had no choice but to gently set her on her feet and watch her make the attempt to cross to Anakin on her own.

In the middle of the distance between them she stopped. "Let them go, Anakin."

"Come to me first," he stated tonelessly.

"Anakin…" She looked at him pleadingly, and for once, Obi-Wan sensed something very bright in the dark clouds that surrounded his former student. 

Anakin called off the troops, and warily, the resistance members filed passed the clones, aiding Dormé to her ship. 

Then Padmé gestured for Obi-Wan to go, and he did, very reluctantly. _Protect him, he heard the echo of her thoughts in his mind, and knew that this battle was one he could not win. _

Padmé would have to face Anakin alone, and Obi-Wan had the doubt that she would win. The Dark Side resided in Anakin Skywalker now, this he knew the moment he gazed at his former padawan. It tore a hole into his heart to know that this student who had become a friend and a brother and a son had turned, was no longer full of the light but burdened by darkness. That he was a willing drone of Palpatine's creation. 

Husband and wife watched the three starships leave in silence. The clone troopers retreated, no doubt at a mind control from Anakin himself. 

When she at last met his gaze, Anakin's eyes were soft, as they once were. But she could not be deceived. There was coldness in the core of him now. Dark deceptions swirled all around them, and she had to remain strong, could not give in to it. 

"Why have you come here?" she asked.

"For you," he said, acknowledging what once lay between them. 

"You have changed," she stated. "I assume you work with Chancellor Palpatine now?"

There was accusation in that tone, and yet a flatness, as if she didn't want to appear hurt and betrayed in front of him. 

His eyes flickered with something she couldn't read and he said flatly, "The time has come, Senator Amidala, for us to give up this charade."

"Senator Amidala?" she asked, stung. "What happened to Padmé? And did you forget my last name is Skywalker? Or has that decrepit old fool brainwashed you like he has this galaxy, Anakin?"

"Anakin Skywalker is dead," he replied. "That name no longer holds any meaning for me. Nor does what lay between you and him."

"How can you separate Anakin from whatever you've become?" she cried out. "You are one and the same."

"No. _I am Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith. Anakin Skywalker was a pathetic Jedi who did not understand the power of the Dark Side." He smiled coldly. "I spared that old fool Kenobi's life for a very good reason, Senator. And that reason is I will enjoy hunting him down later."_

"What have you done, Anakin?" she whispered, pressing a hand to her stomach. "What has happened to you to make you turn to evil?" 

He stared at her without any sort of recognition for the pain that crossed her features, without any sort of recognition that he understood her pain, that some part of himself still railed against this. 

Yet she could sense the conflict, and reached out to him. "Anakin, please," she said. "Don't do this. Come back from whatever hells Palpatine placed you in. Come back to me. Remember us, the love that we had, the love that I still have for you. Come back to it, please, Ani…"

"I dislike begging," he stated.

She wavered on her feet, feeling her vision go out of focus for a moment, and she tried desperately to steady herself. 

And she knew she had to go against everything she'd promised herself she'd never say if it came to this. She knew the worry Obi-Wan had never told her kept him up nights. She knew it in her heart now. And it was her only weapon left. 

"Anakin…Darth Vader…whatever you're calling yourself now…you cannot deny one thing," she said. "You cannot deny who you were. Call him pathetic if you will, but Anakin Skywalker was far greater than you'll ever be. Even if you slay a thousand Jedi. Even if you murder me now." Straightening, she pointed to his blade. "Take it up, if you dare. Strike me down."

At this new tack, he seemed to hesitate a little; sensing she had pressed a nerve, she taunted him with it. "What's the matter, Darth? Don't have the strength in you to murder the woman you promised to love forever? Don't you have the guts to take my life? Aren't you going to take this opportunity to destroy your greatest weakness?"

"Stop it, Padmé," he said, and that voice was no longer the detached tone of Darth Vader. It was a hoarse entreaty from Anakin, and she knew she had him.

"Padmé? What happened to Senator Amidala?" She walked closer, swaggering slightly with the struggle to keep on her feet. "Are you suddenly losing your resolve, Darth? Is Anakin finally resurfacing in you? Or was it that he never left you? That he exists inside you still, taunting you, making you struggle and grasp for every bit of Dark Side strength?"

She became bolder still, knowing that these were her dying moments. She slapped him across the face, the move costing her precious seconds of equilibrium. 

It was in that moment that he caught her, holding her tightly as he sank to his knees, ignoring her fighting weakly against him. "Stop it, Padmé…stop it, beloved…my darling, don't…"

"Anakin," she said softly, dropping her fists.

He stared down at her with saddened eyes, the same expression in them she had seen all those years ago on that Naboo cruiser, when he'd given her the japor snippet she wore even now. They were frightened and sad and lonely and they loved her. He leaned down and kissed her, and that was when she knew fully that he had let the shadow of Vader flee entirely. 

She reached up and touched his face. "Why are you doing this?" 

"Because I have no choice," he answered. 

"You have a choice, Anakin. Step away from the darkness."

He shook his head. "Padmé, I have to do this. If I don't go to the Dark Side, the Light can never triumph." At her confused look, he explained, "I had a vision, my love, one that showed me my destiny was clouded by darkness. But from that darkness came a great light. Our son, Padmé. The boy you bore in your womb all those months ago." 

"The boy I birthed mere days ago," she said quietly.

He nodded. "Don't you see, my angel? I have to submerge, in order for him to stop Palpatine and the evil spreading throughout this galaxy."

She gazed up into his eyes. "How can you do this, knowing what you know?"

"I have a great deal of anger inside me, Padmé," he acknowledged. "It has always been there. Anger at slavery, at my mother's death. It has become an evil seed rotting inside me, waiting for this day." 

"Surely this cannot be the only way…"

"I cannot defeat Palpatine alone. His is a far greater strength than ever imagined." He caressed her face, seeing death starting to take hold. "Don't let's talk of this now, angel. Let me hold you."

She closed her eyes, letting him have his way. And soon enough, her breathing grew shallower and shallower until his beautiful wife took her last breath in his arms and the spirit left her body, making it sag like so much perfectly carved marble in his arms. 

At that, Anakin rose, and carried her body slowly and gracefully to his waiting ship. It was small and he piloted it with agility to the place he had chosen when he had found out Padmé was dying.

It was a world of trees and tranquility, completely unlike any of the ones Anakin had been on recently, and much like the former beauty of Naboo, which was, at the moment, being ravaged by turbolaser fire into nothing but an empty slag, he knew. 

He built for that waiting body a pyre of simple wood, using his blue bladed lightsaber to cut the trees and fit them together with the Force. Then, gently laying her soft frame on the wood, he set it alight and watched it burn. 

It took most of that world's short day and far into the night to burn out completely. He watched until there was nothing, not even charred ashes, left. He willed himself to bury deep the exchange that had passed between them and exhaled a breath, releasing a small cloud, and gazed up at the stars, shining above him in the velvet soft darkness. 

And slowly, he let the darkness back in, until it had consumed him as the pyre had consumed Padmé Amidala Skywalker. 


	6. Part V PG

It was on some unnamed world that Anakin Skywalker-turned-Darth Vader caught up with Obi-Wan Kenobi several hours later. But on the journey there, they both knew the other could feel their every move, and neither tried to shield thoughts or emotions through the mental bond a master shares with a student, even long after the student is no longer a student but an equal.

_Do you remember, Obi-Wan, that day on Ilum when I built my first lightsaber? Anakin ventured. _

_I remember, came the response. __How could I forget?_

Anakin had been twelve going on thirteen when the Council had deemed him ready to build his blade. He and Obi-Wan had made the journey to Ilum and the Crystal Cave to be attacked by gorgodons, native creatures of the ice world. It had been a hard battle to gain entry to the caves. And in them…

Obi-Wan blocked the memory of seeing his master fight and fall, again and again, until it faded away. But the message he had never been able to understand remained lingering in his mind. Was this what Qui-Gon had meant, he wondered, that I would fail in my teachings? That was I was too quick to take Anakin as my padawan?

_I never told you, Anakin's voice came, dispelling away the doubts and the questions, __that while I was in those caves, I had a vision of a Sith…Qui-Gon's murderer. He told me that my anger gives me power, that I could twist my fear into a weapon, to use that power to strike down my enemies with all of my hatred. That he resided in me, waiting for the time when I would accept him. I tried to fight him, and he tossed me my blade, only it glowed red. And when the vision faded, I gripped that lightsaber in my hands and turned it on. It was blue. But I would never forget what I learned from him. No matter how hard I strived to forget, I could not. I couldn't save my mother. I wasn't strong enough. And I began to understand what the Sith had meant. Without my anger, I had no power. I was useless. _

_Anakin, you are not useless, Obi-Wan reminded him. __You were not useless with me in every step of the journey to knighthood. You were younger then, and he was preying on your greatest fears. And you triumphed over him to become a Jedi. _

_Did I? Anakin's voice sounded haunted, weary. __My mother died, Obi-Wan. Padmé died. And someday, you will die, too. Everything that I have ever loved has been taken from me. I am not strong enough on my own to save them. Or you._

_Death is a part of life, Anakin. It is something we cannot escape. But do you think the dead ever truly leave us? Your mother lives on in you. Padmé lives on in you. And I will forever be with you. You could not stop your mother from dying. It was a cruel trick of fate – _

_A trick that I could've prevented, Obi-Wan! Anakin raged.__ Had I been there, I could've saved her! Or if I had been able to leave earlier - _

_It would have made no difference, Anakin. If your mother was fated to meet that death, nothing you could've done would've stopped it. Suppose we had__ gone back to Tatooine when you had first started having the dreams. Suppose the Council had__ let you contact your mother. When we left, the same thing could've happened. And you would've felt worse. Obi-Wan went quiet for a moment and then came back. __As for Padmé, there was nothing anyone__ could've done for her. The healer tried. I tried. _

There was silence for a moment as both Jedi Knight and Master tried to absorb this. 

And then came a question Obi-Wan was not expecting. 

_What is he like, Obi-Wan? _

_What do you mean?_

_Don't play games. The boy you cradle in your arms even now. What is he like?_

Obi-Wan glanced at the sleeping child, his body resting to support Luke though he felt so much tension inside. Anakin knew about Luke. 

_He's…The Jedi hesitated for words. __He looks like you, Anakin. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Padmé's face, though. _

Anakin closed his eyes, picturing that for just one moment. Allowing the Darkness to recede again. _What did she name him?_

_Luke. It means 'light.'_

A telepathic chuckle surprised Obi-Wan. The baby felt it and stirred slightly. 

_Even then Padmé knew. _

_What does she know, Anakin?_

_She knew that boy would be a threat to the darkness that surrounds us now, Obi-Wan. _

_Is he a threat to you__?_

_Yes. Anakin shifted in the cockpit of his ship, listening to the pressurized hum of the air circulating around him. __He is a threat to everything Darth Vader stands for._

_Darth Vader? Obi-Wan froze, and then he understood so much, knowing all of a sudden why they were heading towards this planet._

A planet of fiery volcanoes, instability. A planet worthy of the end of a great Jedi. 

Did Anakin mean this place as his burial site? Or was it the site of his rebirth as a Sith Lord and _Obi-Wan's death?_

_Now it becomes clear to you that there is no other choice. You must__ fight me, Obi-Wan. A fitting ending, don't you think? Out of the ashes of Qui-Gon's funeral pyre came my apprenticeship to you. And out of the ashes of Padmé's funeral pyre will come the end of the Jedi. The Dark Side will triumph, Obi-Wan. This has been foreseen by your own Council members. A bitter laugh came. __I will finally prove Yoda's greatest fears correctly. _

_Anakin, you don't have to turn. _

_It is too late for that, master. His voice turned quiet. __I am still the learner, in some ways. But no longer a learner of the light. It is your duty to fight, to protect my son as you couldn't protect me or Padmé or Qui-Gon. He needs you. And I challenge you. _

_What will you do with him if I do not win this battle?_

_Turn him over to Palpatine. Perhaps we might even rule the galaxy as father and son. _

Obi-Wan lifted the baby and began walking out of the cockpit. He set the child down in a makeshift cradle and felt determination seep into his bones. He had to try this one last time. Facing Anakin in battle wasn't going to be easy. 

But for Padmé's sake, for the sake of Luke, he had to try. 

"Do, or do not, there is no try," he muttered to himself. To fight now would be to try to face what Anakin had become…or push him over the edge. Was it possible to fight him and convince Anakin to come back? Or had Darth Vader taken over so far that Anakin was losing himself by the second?

_Your faith is, as always, Obi-Wan, unshaken, Anakin's mocking voice came. __Always with you, the impossible can be done._

_Nothing is impossible, Obi-Wan thought. __Not even for one who labels himself Sith to come back to the light._

_That I doubt. Then a beeping noise from the cockpit alerted Obi-Wan that he was coming up on the planet, and he went back into the cockpit to find a safe place to land._

_There, Anakin told him, and his viewscreen filled with a place that seemed stable enough to hold the two fighters as well as their ships. Gently, both ships were set down, one on either side of the makeshift arena. Before leaving, Obi-Wan checked the boy and sent him into a deeper Force-assisted sleep, one that was dreamless. _

Taking a deep breath, he gathered his lightsaber and his thoughts. He had only one chance to turn Anakin back. The former student, for all of his words, hung teetering on the edge. The galaxy would be forever lost if Obi-Wan failed now and Luke was handed to the Chancellor's Jedi hunters. Leia would not be strong enough to turn her father and brother back from the Dark Side, not alone. 

Then the landing ramp hissed as it touched warm, not hot, earth, and he walked down it slowly. Anakin strode down his, the tall figure of the former padawan lit with tension. Nervous or angry, Obi-Wan could not tell. 

The two fighters circled one another and Anakin slowly drew out his lightsaber, igniting it with a familiar _snap-hiss. _

Obi-Wan watched his face become cast in blue light, watched those young blue eyes become darker, set with anger and determination. 

"What if I do not agree to fight you?" he asked aloud.

"Come, come, Obi-Wan, would you let me win that easily?" Anakin taunted.

"The Dark Side may triumph over you now," Obi-Wan replied quietly, "but I will not give in to its plea to claim me as well."

"You always did view yourself as better." 

"Not better, Anakin," Obi-Wan said. "Nor superior. Just different."

"Because I'm the Chosen One." Anakin placed emphasis on the last two words, drew them sarcastically out.

"Yes," his former master acknowledged. "You are the Chosen One."

"How did you think I could defeat the Darkness if I had no knowledge of it, Obi-Wan? If I could not understand the ways of the Sith, how could I understand how to defeat them?"

"I didn't have to understand the ways of the Sith to defeat one of them," Obi-Wan pointed out. 

"But you are not me." Anakin turned the blade in a practiced spin, his motion drawing him nearer still to Obi-Wan, who did not flinch. The blade did not feel warm near his skin, though the air did. He just couldn't stare into its brilliancy, meeting Anakin's eyes with still more of that sad resignation. 

"No, I am not. But did anyone ever ask you to take on every Sith Lord? You're only human, Anakin."

"If I was human, I could not be Jedi. The Jedi are devoid of emotion. You are devoid of emotion. I married Padmé, defied a Council. Therefore was I ever really a Jedi, Obi-Wan? Did I deserve that title placed on my shoulders with such trepidation?"

"Yes," was the firm response. "Anakin, no Jedi is ever free of the struggle between emotion and the Jedi way. It is an ongoing battle that everyone has fought. You just had to fight harder, that was all."

Another twirl of the blade, and Anakin was behind him, the blade humming near his left ear. 

"Were you ever unsure of yourself, Obi-Wan? Ever angry and full of pain?"

"Yes."

"Did you ever love someone so much that it felt like you couldn't breathe without them?"

Obi-Wan thought fleetingly of Siri, of the many beautiful women who caught his interest in his younger years, before he had decided to adhere more firmly to having no passion. Before his impetuosity had largely flown, when he was still passionate. Had he loved any of them, really loved them the way Anakin and Padmé had loved?

"Yes," he said quietly, thinking of Siri and their training. He had loved her once, before time had overtaken him. 

"I loved Padmé that way. And I lost her. I loved my mother deeply. And I lost her. The women I loved I was not strong enough to save. I have the power to do anything, Obi-Wan. Anything I desire."

"Except bring them back," Obi-Wan said.

He thought Anakin would strike him then, and he did, a blunt blow with the less deadly end of a lightsaber, one that sent him stumbling forward, though Jedi reflexes kept him from falling.

"I no longer need them," Anakin hissed. "They were weaknesses of a damned fool that listened so hard to his master, one that tried so hard to be the Jedi he always wanted to be. And yet he could never meet up to anyone's expectations or requirements. They kept him weak. _You kept me weak."_

"How?"

"For never allowing me to grow at the rate I wanted to. I wanted to be the greatest of all Jedi, and it was you who kept me from that. But I have discovered something. I no longer need you or your Order or their restrictions. Because the game you wanted me to play, where I ignored all my emotions and became just another Jedi robot, well, that game is over."

Obi-Wan turned to face him. "Then why not just leave, Anakin?" he asked wearily. "Why must you make such a production of this if you no longer care?"

"Because I want to see you suffer, Kenobi. I want to wring every last emotion out of you." Anakin's smile grew deeper, more wicked.

"You're crazy."

"Glad you think so." Anakin lifted a fist and suddenly Obi-Wan was caught in a hailstorm of lightning, rammed with a pain of thousands of needles, sharpest glass shoved into his eyelids, an everlasting scream of agony echoing in his mind. He finally understood what had so dazed Anakin the day Dooku had struck him with it. The force of the blow stunned him to his knees. 

When at last Anakin was finished, he stared at his former master. "Now. Take up your weapon and fight, Kenobi."

Obi-Wan slowly lifted his eyes. "No, Anakin."

There came another burst of blue lightning, and through the haze of pain that blurred his vision, he saw Anakin's face taut with tension and yet, at the same time, glee. 

He gasped for air when Anakin's torment ended. 

"Take up the blade, Obi-Wan," Anakin said, his words almost a soothing caress. "You know you want to. Even just to make me see that the Light Side will always triumph over evil."

"No," he repeated, his voice strengthening. "No, Anakin, I will not."

"Why?"

" 'A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never anger,' " Obi-Wan said, quoting a mantra Yoda had often told the younglings. 

"Then defend yourself." 

"I cannot."

"Then you are weak," Anakin spat. "You deserve to die, Obi-Wan." 

Again blasted with lightning, Obi-Wan felt temptation rise inside. It would be so easy to take up the blade to defend himself against the coming of each lightning blast. 

Yet he could not. If he did that, he would find his temper flaring and he would be lost to anger. He would give in and fight, and that was exactly what Anakin wanted.

Obi-Wan gritted his teeth, feeling the intensity of each blow. And then he felt something else.

The ground beneath him was warm to the touch, and it was starting to tremble. The volatile planet had apparently decided that whatever was happening between them was not important enough to wait the arrival of a new volcano, one that would rise from the ground to boil over with lava. 

He had to do something, otherwise all three of them would be killed. 

So he withdrew his blade, igniting it finally as he struggled to his feet. Anakin stopped and lunged forward so that the two blue blades clashed against one another. Obi-Wan was caught halfway to his feet, and he grunted as he tried to push Anakin back.

He finally succeeded, and Anakin stepped back long enough for Obi-Wan to rise. And then his former padawan came forward again, lunging with a series of blows so fast Obi-Wan could almost not keep up. Each blow frantically blocked, Obi-Wan sensed he was losing ground, that Anakin was pushing him to the edge of the safe ground. Fiery lava waited below, and Obi-Wan realized for the first time the "safe area" was a cliff. 

Obi-Wan pushed back against Anakin, finally succeeding in turning aside some of Anakin's blows so that they both stood at the edge together.

"Is this what you want, Anakin?" Obi-Wan raised his voice against the rumble of the lava flow. "For both of us to die here?"

"Who said we would die?" Anakin shot back, backing off so that Obi-Wan would have to come at him offensively. But the Jedi Master walked back in, his eyes narrowed as he turned his back towards his ship. Again, Anakin was the aggressor, and this time being passive cost Obi-Wan. 

Anakin's blade sliced into that wounded arm, the permanent reminder of the Clone Wars and Count Dooku. Obi-Wan cried out, and instead of disabling him, it only brought out the fighter who had destroyed Darth Maul. 

Obi-Wan lunged forward, ignoring the shriek of pain his muscles gave him as he switched hands to fight Anakin left-handed. He drove the surprised younger man back, and kept driving him back towards the center and then past it, toward the cliff. Anakin cried out as Obi-Wan drove the saber across his shoulder and chest, wounding him; luckily it was not deep enough to kill him. Not yet, anyway.

At the sight of Anakin's blood, Obi-Wan froze, his focus leaving him with a wavering saber. Anakin teetered, clutching his wound; he glanced at Obi-Wan with betrayal in his eyes. 

Obi-Wan reached out. "Anakin…"

And then the earth did something neither expected. It opened up with a great rumble, fissuring in from the edge so quickly neither Anakin nor Obi-Wan had time to move. Anakin now stood on the edge of a new cliff, and his unsteady footing had him toppling over. 

Horrified, Obi-Wan leaned over the edge to find his former padawan dangling above a river of molten lava, gazing up at him with terrified eyes. 

"Obi-Wan, help me, please…"

Obi-Wan dropped his blade onto the ground and with both arms grasped the younger man, pulling him back up towards safety. 

Once they were there, Obi-Wan grasped the boy he'd come to regard as his son closely. "Come on, we've got to get you out of here."

As he unsteadily rose to his feet, dragging Anakin with him, the younger man coughed, the sound too liquid for Obi-Wan's liking. "It's too late for me, I think."

"No," Obi-Wan said, his mind dredging up the memory of Qui-Gon's death.

_"Obi-Wan…it's…it's too late for me…"_

The earth seemed determined not to help them, shaking threateningly. Obi-Wan gritted his teeth against the pain in his arm and dragged Anakin all the faster to his ship. 

"Obi-Wan…" Anakin said, his voice so weak that maybe a yard from safety, Obi-Wan stopped to look at him. The man had gone pale. "The wound is deeper than it looks. I will not survive this."

"Don't talk that way," Obi-Wan denied automatically. "I didn't hit you that hard, Anakin. There's still time, I can get you to help…"

Anakin shook his head. "Stop, Obi-Wan." He shrugged off Obi-Wan's arm and fell hard to the ground. Obi-Wan cradled him as he had done with Qui-Gon all those years ago. It was such a different face that stared up at him with eyes that knew his death was imminent. Yet how similar Qui-Gon was to his former padawan; they both were rebellious and yet acted out of the kindness of their hearts. Anakin would have been just as great a Jedi as Qui-Gon was if he was to survive this.

And both had had Obi-Wan in their lives. How much would have changed if Obi-Wan had never been there? Qui-Gon would not have died then, would he? And Anakin would not be dying now. 

"I don't blame you," Anakin said, "so don't blame yourself." 

"Are you reading my mind?" Obi-Wan pushed away sweat beads that had gathered on Anakin's forehead. 

Anakin managed a weak smile. "I don't have to. It's written all over your face." He shifted and brought his lightsaber out. "Take this…give it to my son. Tell him…tell him my story. And train him like you trained me."

"Anakin, I couldn't," he said. "If another master had trained you, you would not be dying now."

"I would not have the strength to do half the things that I did had you not trained me. Obi-Wan, you may not have been a perfect teacher, but you were the best for me. That's all that matters." Anakin pressed the blade into Obi-Wan's hand. "Now take it. Train him. Leave me here."

"I cannot leave you."

"You must." Anakin was firm. "Go, Obi-Wan. Leave me, old friend, master. You cannot save the galaxy. But you can save my son." 

Obi-Wan looked down into blue eyes that were fading even now, and said softly, "You were the closet to a son I ever had, Anakin."

"And you to a father," Anakin acknowledged. "And for that, you must train your grandson to succeed me as the Chosen One. He is pure light, Obi-Wan. I was always tainted." 

And so Obi-Wan left him there, his eyes closed as if already lost to death. With bitter tears in his eyes for the things that he'd done and for the loss he was already suffering, Obi-Wan set a course for a planet Anakin would never see again. 

He could not possibly know that as Anakin watched him leave, he rose from his position. He had no idea that Anakin was well enough to walk to his own ship, that the wound was as superficial as he'd thought. 

But Anakin had not counted on the earth's wrath that he would be denying it the pleasure of killing him. And so as he started the ship's engine, he did not hear the roar of danger as the cliff started to fall. It was too late when he tried to maneuver the ship out of the fall. 

The lava waited below. 


	7. Part VI PG

Tatooine, sparsely populated, dangerous, and sandy to say the least, was where Obi-Wan took his precious burden. His thoughts dwelled on Anakin, on the agonized scream that had punctured every sense of his while blasting out of atmosphere. Luke had awakened and screamed bloody murder until Obi-Wan had quieted him, though he himself was shaken. 

Anakin Skywalker was dead. The galaxy teetered on the brink of darkness, and all hope was extinguished.

No, Obi-Wan reminded himself, gazing down at the child in his arms. It was not extinguished, not yet. There were still two more Skywalkers. The boy in that makeshift cradle would be able to save them all as his father could not. 

Obi-Wan only knew where to go as a result of all that Anakin had told him when he'd come back from his fateful visit to Tatooine. When he arrived at their door, Beru and Owen were startled to see him, not recognizing the Jedi. Owen stared at him suspiciously. "What do you want?"

Obi-Wan introduced himself and then the child. He explained their circumstances, and pleaded with the two to take Luke in, raise their step-nephew as their own with no mention of his past or of Obi-Wan himself. 

Beru took Luke from him and cradled the boy. It was evident that she wanted to keep him, that much Obi-Wan could tell.

Owen didn't seem too happy with this development. He frowned. "How will we keep him, Kenobi? We barely feed ourselves."

"Owen," Beru rebuked. 

"It's true," Owen protested. He looked at Obi-Wan sternly. "This child is the child of Jedi. I have enough trouble trying to oversee my father's farm without adding the threat of Jedi hunters and clone troopers destroying it in search of him."

"That won't be a problem," Obi-Wan reassured him. "I am staying on this planet. I will be able to protect Luke."

"How?" Owen scoffed.

"By cloaking his presence. No one will ever know he is anything out of the ordinary. And I will keep myself far enough from him so that Jedi hunters will not become suspicious."

"How are you going to support yourself?" Beru asked. 

"I will be able to take care of myself." Obi-Wan paused. "The only thing that I ask of you is that you keep Luke's name."

"Wouldn't that be a dead giveaway?" Owen questioned. 

"No. Anakin is dead," Obi-Wan told them quietly. "By the time that Luke becomes old enough for schooling, no one will remember him. Or the Jedi."

Owen stared at him with disbelief and more than a little dislike. Small wonder, Obi-Wan mused. They had lost contact with Anakin in the years that followed his one visit to them, for had pushed memories of his mother and her death as far away from him as possible. 

Obi-Wan rose from his seat. "I'll give you time to think this over." He took Luke back from Beru and went out into the courtyard quietly.

"We can't do this," Owen said immediately.

"Why not?" Beru asked. 

"It's too dangerous."

"Owen, you heard Obi-Wan. He'll shield Luke – "

"That's not good enough. What about our lives, Beru? He's putting us in danger, too."

She watched her husband of three years pace, and went over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Owen," she said softly, "Luke needs parents, better ones than that Jedi can provide. We're his only surviving family."

"What about his mother?"

"I would imagine she's dead too. Why else would the Jedi come to us?"

"We're not his real family."

"We're the closest he's going to get. Do you remember what Shmi used to tell us all the time? That the biggest problem in the galaxy was that no one helped one another?"

Owen frowned. "That was a long time ago, Beru." 

"We owe her that much," Beru said quietly. "For all the things she did for you and for your father. We should take Luke in."

"What about our own children?" Owen questioned. "How will you feel a few years from now if we have them _and Luke to take care of?"_

Beru's face grew grave. "Owen, you heard what the doctor said."

"He could be wrong," Owen insisted.

"He's not. I won't be able to have children of my own, Owen." She paused. "I want to take Luke in," she said softly. "He's the closest I'll ever get to having my own."

Owen looked at her and his frown softened. He could never deny Beru anything she wanted, simply because she never asked him for anything; when she did, it was not for what he couldn't give. And now she was asking him to take in his stepbrother's son, to raise the only boy to carry on the Lars traditions, if not the name. 

He turned away from her, going outside. After a few brief words, he brought both back inside. "Obi-Wan will spend the night here," he said. "No more, no less, Jedi. And then I don't ever want to see you around here. Luke will be raised a Skywalker, but with none of that Jedi nonsense, understood?"

Obi-Wan nodded gravely, and Beru thought she caught something flickering in his eyes. Amusement, perhaps, that Anakin's son could be kept from the Jedi ways. She took the baby he handed her and said more kindly, "Owen and I will raise him well, I promise you." 

"That is all I could ever ask for," he responded as she showed him the guest bedroom. 

When they were alone, she hesitated. "What was Luke's mother's name?"

Obi-Wan seemed to hesitate as well before he answered, "Padmé Amidala. She traveled here, I believe."

"Yes…" Beru looked thoughtful as an image rose in her mind of a young woman clad in blue. "I had thought they were in love." Then her eyes rose to meet his seriously. "How did she die?"

"She lost too much blood after delivering Luke," he said simply, although to be honest, he had no idea if Anakin had struck her down in her last moments.

_No, he thought to himself suddenly. She hadn't been struck down by him. He had let darkness fade to hold her until she died. __And out of the ashes of Padmé's funeral pyre will come the end of the Jedi, Anakin's voice echoed in his mind. So, he had waited with her when she took her last breath, and brought her to someplace where he could quietly hold a funeral for her. _

Such love that had driven Anakin once. Did it drive him at the end? Or, as he said, was it only a weakness?

Obi-Wan came back to himself to realize that Beru had asked him another question. He answered it after a moment and then she left him alone. It was a dangerous place to be, dwelling on his former padawan's death. 

So in order to keep on breathing, in order not to spend the rest of his life blaming himself for it (which he'd do anyway), he pushed the memory aside and sank deep into meditation.

*

The fiery hell had burned away much of his flesh. But he could still see, hear, smell, taste. He could still talk. 

How was that possible?

He tried to move and found the agony intensified. 

"You disobeyed my orders, young apprentice."

Yes, he had. But where was he now? How was this happening? Was it possible he had escaped death?

"Barely."

But how?

"By the power of the Dark Side," spat an angry voice, a voice that was all too familiar. "Because I came for you and dragged you out of that lava. Because Obi-Wan Kenobi had left you to die."

Was that true? Did Obi-Wan? Or was it that he had told Obi-Wan to leave?

He was aware now that his breathing was so deep, so rhythmic.

Had it always been that way?

"Vader, open your eyes and see for yourself."

Vader? 

Obediently, he did as commanded, and was horrified to see that his body was no longer his own. That he was encased in full black body armor.

That what regulated his breath was not his brain but a machine. 

That his face was no longer a face but a mask that looked like a hollowed out skull.

That his eyes were no longer his own. Nor was anything else. Not even the crude mechanical arm placed on him after his failure at Geonosis. 

He wanted to scream but couldn't gather the air for it, couldn't gather the air for more than just a horrified, "No…"

And then a person came into view, dressed in a dark robe, with malicious eyes that smiled upon his pain. 

"Oh, yes, young Skywalker. Now, you finally see the true power of the Dark Side. Without it, you would never have survived. You are its servant, its living embodiment. As such, you will no longer go by that name. You will go under the name you chose for yourself all those months ago. Darth Vader."

Hatred welled up inside him. If he could have cried the hot, bitter tears he wanted to, he would've. But he could not. 

Anakin Skywalker took his last breath as a free man before the Dark Side truly engulfed him. The memories that would've come back in a few moments were suppressed, buried deep along with the power of that name. 

And Darth Vader emerged to take his place beside his master. 


	8. Epilogue PG

Epilogue

_He builds the box with care. Wood is in precious supply on this, the most barren of desert worlds. And so what he can get of it, he conserves carefully. He carves into it slowly, with the intricacy of design he remembers from the Jedi Temple. In it, he will place the knowledge Luke will need to become a Jedi._

_He had contacted Bail Organa only once afterward. Or rather, Bail had contacted him via a vision of Yoda. The old master had told Obi-Wan what he needed to know. Where the master was, was unimportant. Just that he had survived to give the message was enough._

_Leia would be raised an Organa. She would be the daughter of wealth and privilege, and never dream of her humble beginnings in the caves of Alderaan, the hidden chambers. _

_Or that her beginnings were even more humble. The daughter of the daughter of simple farmers and a former slave, freed by a semi-rogue Jedi. _

_Yes, that was a fit enough beginning for a princess. Ironic that while she was raised in the lap of luxury, Luke was raised by simple farmers like his mother's people. He was the one who would carry the Skywalker name, and all its bloody legacy. _

_Perhaps it was better this way, that Leia remained the royalty and Luke the peasant. Both of them would take the training they received from their foster parents and use it when the time came to defeat the worst of all evils._

_Obi-Wan was stunned to learn that Anakin had survived his injuries, and even more so to watch Darth Vader's career with sadness and anger.__ But he had to let those emotions go. Emotions would only reveal himself to his former student. He could not do that. _

_Not if he was to train the last of the Jedi. _

_Could he take on that burden, he wondered. He had fallen so far and so hard with Anakin's training. He had failed miserably. Could he be trusted to train another generation of Skywalkers?_

_Whenever he asked himself that question, he thought of Padmé, of Luke, and Leia. He thought of his last words to his padawan. He thought of his master. _

_It wasn't so much a question of could he be trusted. It wasn't a question of could he get it right. Nor was it a question of wanting that responsibility._

_It was only this: He had__ to. For every failure and triumph the Jedi Order had ever passed through its halls. For every failure and triumph in his own career as a padawan and then a knight. And most certainly for all his failures and triumphs with Anakin._

_That was what it was all about, really. Without a Skywalker in the galaxy, the galaxy would fall into darkness. With darkness, came a Skywalker birth. _

_And for that birth, came a Kenobi teacher. _

_So as he placed Anakin's lightsaber in that box, he thought only of the future. It was still cloudy, uncertain. But fate had a funny way of working things out. A slave became the chosen one of destiny. A queen became the mother of a new generation of chosen ones._

_And a Jedi who had strived so hard to do the right thing all his life and had made the greatest mistake of them all, was given the chance to correct it. _

Afterward:

Well, this seems to be it for Anakin and Padmé. However, it is not. I had an idea for an AU ending…or I could continue with a sequel. What do you think?


End file.
